First Light: Book one of the Torus Saga

by Berg, Michael

  “He said we needed to be here to feel this chamber as he gave us more information. Intrinsically they are linked. He gave us a sheet of paper, which he said to keep secret. So I think we need to depart Mogao and go back to our rooms at Dunhuang to look it ov…”

  “I think only part of that is a good idea, the going back to our rooms part. Once there, we should leave and find another place to stay,” Lyle interrupted.

  As they turned to leave, they noticed other groups emerging from the caves. “Well at least our departure may be less suspicious with these others leaving as well.”

  Three hours later, they were gathered in the same cafe in the older part of the city where they had first discussed the torus. The owner recognized them immediately and came over to serve them. A few other people were in the establishment, a couple, and middle-aged man, and two women sitting together. “How may I serve you today?”

  “Um…some green tea. I can smell it from here,” Raynie said ordering for them all. The others all said yes in agreement, and the owner left them to make the tea.

  “Perhaps he could tell us where else we could stay,” Jake proposed. “No harm in asking him I guess.”

  “I agree. He might know of a place away from the tourist hordes and any other visitors to the city at the moment,” Jenna replied. “He seems to be on our side.”

  “Side?” Lyle challenged laughing. “Taking sides? Whose side? What side? Inside?

  “All of the above and more.” This brought them all to silence as they contemplated the ‘more’ part of Jenna’s statement. There would certainly be more than the sides they had become accustomed to. Already, the experience at the caves had changed them as they began to grasp the activation meaning behind their journey.

  When the owner returned with a pot of tea and four cups, he seemed even more enthusiastic toward them. “Have you thought about the torus and your meeting here the other night? How was your trip to the caves?”

  “How did you…?” Jake began to ask.

  “I know. My customer tells me what he considers worth knowing, both good and bad. I must say my most regular customer is quite impressed with your integrity. He can sense from all of you, the thirst for knowledge and synchronicity…um, and decency of character. He says you are an unlikely group to help us, and that you must have fortitude to go on this journey you are on with very little knowledge as to why.”

  “Perhaps you can help us some more,” Lyle asked. “We are very grateful for the hospitality you have given us and we feel we are amongst friends here. But, we think there are others who we may not consider as friends and they make us nervous.”

  “Hmm. I expected this.”

  “Well, we were wondering if you could recommend another place to stay here in Dunhuang? Somewhere a little away from the popular places.”

  “Certainly! You can stay at my own home. I have plenty of room for all four of you. It is best what you say and keep out of sight. They will likely have determined where you are staying and the vehicle in which you travel. My home has a workshop attached to it for my hobbies. Your vehicle will fit in there. Where is it now?”

  “We thought of that,” Jake said. “It was better to walk most of the way here than to drive. It is at our motel.”

  “Well. You must have your tea, return to your motel, and then drive to my home. I will give you the route to take. Anyone who may follow you will be easy to see and if they are tracking you electronically, I have a little surprise for them.”

  “Surprise?”

  “Yes, one of my hobbies. I will return shortly with the bill. On there I will write the details you need.”

  “More paper with writing. These old fashioned ways to communicate are so interesting,” Jenna said when the owner had returned with the bill. “It keeps those electronic tracking devices at bay. Any communications sent through the system would be intercepted for sure.”

  “Let’s go back but casually and in a round-a-bout way,” Lyle added. They had all changed from their Geiga wear after returning from the caves prior to going to the restaurant - appearing now as two couples holding hands like the many tourists about Dunhuang that evening.

  **********

  Tobias, Asper, John, and Lorraine sat in the lounge room of the wooden house - the night sky visible through the large bay windows. Amongst the stars, a myriad of orbital and other craft also lit up the sky. These sights often made people stop a moment just to gaze at the beauty of the light show and ponder the role of the many spacecraft. Some would say they are just commercial satellites servicing the needs of society, which was mostly true. But others would speculate about conspiracy and they were constantly watching us, but such ramblings were often relegated to those of the slightly mad, as everyone knew central systems controlled virtually all data traffic, and would have no problem keeping an eye on anyone.

  Their conversation focused on the plight John had taken to decipher an algorithm for the personal identity chips. After setting up a chance meeting with John, Lorraine had contacted Asper to come along for dinner at the house where John and Tobias were staying. It was then that everything had been brought out into the open. Lorraine had advised that both Asper and her were members of a group who stood for values outside those of the consumer corporations and central systems. Their group also investigated people who could be considered as members or networked associates. They operated on a basis like John and Tobias, plus the other four in China, where they accepted technology for what it could do for them, but refused to take on the trans-humanism values espoused to by those in control.

  “I think we need some more information,” John said. “There is an extra data security requirement where the chip authenticates for the latest updates to prevent data hacking. I knew there was one, but there is also a second. It was hidden in the first algorithm…very clever.”

  “But these things will update so fast, how will we intercept?” Tobias asked.

  “Ah. See this?” John held out what appeared to be no more than a very tiny lens. “Data teleport sender and receiver. This enables all data to be received simultaneously, no streaming involved. I am pretty sure they are also working hard on this technology, so we are going to need this if we are to have a definite chance of beating this ID thing.”

  “How does it work?” Asper enquired.

  “Hmm, glad you asked me that one. “It has a tacheon emitter. This sends out a signal to the receiving device setting the space for the data to occupy. All of this takes nano seconds with the tacheon sort of…punching a hole in normal time and space. So without going into the physics of faster than light, basically it arrives virtually the instant it was sent.”

  “Oh, almost a juxtaposition yet virtually?”

  “Hmm…maybe. It is difficult to conceive I know. Try working with it. But if you just consider a moment like an epiphany, where a lot of information or sense comes to you at once and whilst you consider it coming to you, it actually begins inside you. Go with that analogy and you are close. Basically tacheons travel faster than light and so speed here is king.”

  Lorraine was listening intently as John spoke to Asper. “I remember there was a time when faster than light speed was deemed impossible,” she said with a laugh.

  “Yeah I recall,” Tobias added.

  “Now it is a given,” John said. “It was just back in those days when the corporations were the only ones driving science, there was little to no resources put into the research and so instruments for even beginning to detect tacheon emissions were unheard of. The Hadron Collider made the first incursions into this area of physics.”

  “But…” Tobias was deep in thought at this moment. “How does the receiver even begin to work if tacheons travel faster than light, the very speed at which the receiver exists?”

  “Again, good question. I’ll just sum that up as the physics are far too complex to explain. The lens you see is in a constant state of flux. It is one of the newest instruments made to facilitate data teleport. Whilst i
t appears as solid, it actually must contain a percentage of tacheons to create the flux and receive faster than light transmissions. With their slowest speed being just above light speed by the tiniest amount, the tacheons are held in this state awaiting engagement. The work science has done in recent years developing flux is astounding when you think these machines are barely solid.”

  “I wonder how far central systems have developed this.” Lorraine asked. “I suspect they are a fair way along the path.”

  “Indeed,” John replied. “This technology I have, was borrowed in part from them. I could see where they were going when I left the service, so I took a little with me, well…rather replicated it. Since then I have made some changes and added some other modifications obtained from various contacts I have.”

  “Reminds me of the chip we used on the Beaver,” Tobias said his facial expression lost a little to the recollection of the event.

  “Pretty similar, just a lot more data power. If I am right, in the near future this technology may take on teleport of physical objects, but I think that will be more of a blend of data teleport and replication. Organic matter is an entirely different subject, beyond our reach at present.”

  “So what are we going to do?” Tobias asked. “I am thinking…”

  “We are going to need to contact someone in the high rise. The authorities will have agents looking for the very thing we are creating here and no doubt they will be using the latest encryption methods to remain undetectable. This is on top of what I have already mentioned. I know someone who might be able to help us get inside information. ”

  “Top level?”

  “Near enough.”

  Chapter 19

  San Francisco Bay glittered in the early morning sunlight as they rode the elevator car towards the top of the eastern tower in the city center. One of eight interlinked towers covering eight city blocks, it housed over fifty thousand people. Each of the eight towers included parklands with water features, facilities for outdoor amusements, and market gardens to give residents a sense of a complete life. The four passengers all knew otherwise, seeing life in the high rise as an illusion where such features were designed to placate the minds of those who lived here. When a person becomes almost permanently removed from the Earth beneath them, living in manufactured environments, their hearts became indifferent to the essence of this organic interaction – an interaction for humans since their beginning.

  Trans-humanism had a firm grip on mainstream society, providing all people seemed to need as they busily went about their daily lives of work and leisure. The four visitors would never be a party to the way the authorities enabled people to quickly forget the importance of real organic connection in life, through their offerings of a completely catered to lifestyle.

  As the car began to slow for their destination over one hundred floors above the streets below, John broke the silence. “We need to act and behave entirely as if we are residents of the block for obvious reasons.”

  “Welcome to floor one hundred and twenty seven. You will not be required to check in, as this is a non-restricted zone,” came an announcement as the car stopped.

  “Non-restricted? I thought these were purely residential and commercial allotments,” Asper said as they disembarked.

  “They are,” John replied. “That is a new condition. I suspect it could be associated with this alert level the city is under.”

  “Is there any more news on that? I have not heard or seen much at all since the announcement just after the detonations.”

  “Not much really. I have been scanning all the available channels and some others, which to most people are unavailable. Nothing more other than the maintaining of this level of alert.”

  “You can bet there is a lot they are not telling anyone,” Tobias said as they walked towards the reception area. Each floor had a reception area where a holographic concierge service was available for residents and visitors, and a space was designated as a general social meeting place.

  The concierge automatically detected their arrival and appeared before them, floating in the air. Before it could say anything, John said ‘no service’ and it disappeared. “We don’t need that,” he said to the others. “I know where to go.” He led them along a transparent walkway offering views to the internal structure of the building where people could be seen taking morning walks in the parklands. A waterfall led into a lake where the early morning colors were reflected as if it was a natural feature.

  “How do they do that?” Lorraine asked as they stopped to gaze at the scene for a moment.

  “Mirrors,” John replied. “All part of the manufactured nature going on here.” Despite their objections to this way of life, they all agreed it was an awe-inspiring sight. It appeared so convincing that if one was to be in amongst the trees, one could easily forget they were suspended so high above the city below.

  “OK, here we are. We will need to use one of these transports, as the walk could take too long and we need to get this over with quickly.” John firmly believed in operating fast and precise so as to avoid any unnecessary time wasting. Since leaving the service, he had made it an imperative based on his knowledge of the authority’s inner workings, and the results that could entail if he was caught trying to obtain technology. Citizens were encouraged to use technology as much as possible, but to go any further and understand its’ workings, was strictly forbidden. He thought again of this in its’ paradoxical sense where the authorities espoused to a heightened life experience through technology, yet underneath, retained the utmost in control to ensure compliance and general ignorance amongst the populace. They boarded the transport and stood together on a platform as it automatically drove along taking them to the destination John had stated.

  Behind them someone was watching. He noticed the group of four as they stood gazing at the interior of the building. It was his nature and his job to be suspicious and when his suspicions were aroused, he was almost always proven correct. The two women and two men were dressed in the latest technology enabled Geiga wear as were many others who were taking up this new development in apparel, but something about them made him suspicious. It was the way they talked together and the looks in their eyes. The tallest man, whom he had heard to be called John, was of the most suspicion. And no doubt those two women were very keen to be a part of whatever it was he was doing. The other man, Tobias, looked a little lost and not as fiercely determined as John. He had been warned about such dreamers too. Given the chance, they could very likely decide to take up opposition to what the authorities were now putting into place.

  He maintained a distance from them as he followed their transport along the internal passageway, careful to retain a posture and air about him that would not lead to any hint he was actually following them. His assignment was to track two fugitive ex-service people who had taken to leaving Alaska in a hurry and had avoided any successful tracking as they made their way to San Francisco. It was only through a stroke of luck he had even been given this assignment. Whilst acting as an inebriated person at a bar seeking to uncover information, he was able to just catch a sentence from Tobias who fortunately for him, had actually been inebriated.

  This was the clue leading him to follow their conversation that night using high intensity listening technology. He heard Tobias mention the trip, from Alaska, and thought such a journey was uncommon enough to warrant further investigation. By covertly using his holographic phone as opposed to his official issue technology, he was able to access information on the wanted fugitives.

  The authorities did not want to detain Tobias and John at this point, rather allow them to further carry out whatever it was they were doing in the hope of the two men leading them to others who might oppose the measures about to instituted across general society. There was no room for dissent from any citizen. There were times of trouble ahead and the authorities would not tolerate anyone breaching the rules of conduct and psychological behavior.

  The new s
ystems would come online in two weeks, so the authorities were dispatching agents across cities and across the virtual systems to combat any movement considered in opposition to their motives.

  Citizens around the world would suddenly be thrust into a life even more convenient for them, more technologically reliant, and unconsciously, even more controlled. He thought for a moment as he followed them, of how successfully the authorities had everyone believing the hard times of the past where corporations and governments deliberately manipulated lives on mass scales, were long gone. Consumed as they were with their daily work, their struggles to maintain and elevate their individual status, they were mostly unaware of the change occurring.

  Where once multinational corporations had almost taken over the thoughts and actions of most citizens with their convenience through technology, advertising the comfort and health benefits, such control was now in the hands of just a few. Enormous revenues were gained through centrally owned and driven corporations legislated to replace the previous concepts of privately owned multinationals at the mercy of the stock market. It too was gone.

  He laughed a little to himself as his thought of how absurd those who had tried control through stocks and poor fiscal and economic policy, now seemed. He was a man for the system and its’ capacity impressed him. Nothing in those erroneous ways of the past could even approach the level of manipulation now controlled by those who held high office. He drew a sense of power from this, drawing a deep breath and doubling his efforts to track the group ahead.

  He saw them come to a stop outside one of the many residential doors along the passageway. Pretending not to notice, he continued to approach them and then passed by, appearing as if he was intent on his own destination.

  John and the others had been silently riding the transport until they stopped, did not notice the man until he was almost upon them. Casting only a sideways glance at the man as he brushed by, John took careful note of the face he saw, something he had often done since leaving the services. He was very good at remembering faces and where he had seen them. At this time with his objective in mind, he took particular notice for a brief half second. He was not paranoid, but vigilant in noticing every small detail.